Fibrosis is characterized by the formation of excess connective tissue in an organ or a tissue. Typically, fibrosis occurs in response to damage to the organ or tissue. Because the process can include crosslinking of connective tissue molecules, effective therapies for reversing fibrosis are few and far between. Although preventative therapies have long been theorized, the fibrosis mechanism has so far proven too complex to conquer. To date, for example, there are no FDA-approved liver fibrosis therapies, and only a handful of proposed therapies have shown promise over the last two decades. See, e.g., Schuppan and Kim, J. Clin. Invest., vol. 123(5), pages 1887-1901 (2013).
Improved therapies for treating and/or preventing fibrosis are therefore needed.